JUNIOR COLLEGE REGIONAL BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : Break Used to Bone Up on First-Round Foes

Nearly a month after their classmates did, baseball players from Canyons, Moorpark and Mission colleges finally took a spring break.

They were still in classes, but after playing two or three games a week from early February until the end of April, they spent nearly two weeks waiting for the Southern California regional of the state playoffs to begin today.

Yet the only place these guys went on their break was back to basics.

Moorpark used the time to prepare for the running and bunting game of first-round opponent Long Beach City.

Mission spent several workouts trying to remedy problems exposed in a practice-game loss to Harbor on Saturday, and Canyons worked to bounce back from a late-season swoon in which it lost two of its last three Western State Conference games and a Saturday practice game against Cerritos, 10-0.

Mission and Canyons were able to add their Saturday tuneups, but Moorpark has not played since April 28. “That’s scary too,” Moorpark Coach Ken Wagner said. “I don’t know whether it’s going to help.”

The scheduling break arose in part because Moorpark and Canyons were anticipating competing in the WSC’s Shaughnessy playoffs, which were scheduled for last week before being cancelled because of a three-way tie for first.

After days of idleness, the playoffs will begin like a splash of cold water. The first round of the 16-team regional is a best-of-three format, with the first game today and as many games of a doubleheader as are necessary Saturday. The higher-seeded team will play on its home field.

Seventh-seeded Canyons and ninth-seeded Fullerton of the Orange Empire Conference have identical 24-13 records and are expected to stage one of the most competitive first-round matchups. Left-hander Mike Teich (6-2) will start the 2 p.m. game for Canyons, three-time state champions in the 1980s but a nonqualifier last year.

Fourth-seeded Moorpark (22-12) will start right-hander Jeff Berman (8-1) in the 2 p.m. opener against 14th-seeded Long Beach (16-21), a member of the South Coast Conference.

Mission (24-12-1), which finished second in the Southern California Athletic Conference and is seeded 12th, will visit fifth-seeded San Bernardino Valley (29-13), the Foothill Conference champion.

After reviewing his scouting reports, Coach John Klitsner has decided to start ace Nick Lymberopoulos (9-4) in the second game rather than the 2:30 p.m. opener.

The honor of starting Mission’s first game in the state playoffs will be bestowed upon either Jose Garcia (7-1) or Nino Romo (6-5).